Entrepreneur

Think of this poem as a new business.

Welcome! How may I help you?

We're running a special sale
on images, including a swollen
big toe, the variegated fur of a
domestic cat, and a freckle
on a woman's lower back. Will
that be cash or credit?

Alas, this business fails
to turn a profit. Isn't that
just like poetry? --Always
thinking of itself and not
the bottom line. What

was Andrew Carnegie's
favorite poem?... Oh, dear:
Thugs sent by this poem's
venture-capital investors
have arrived. (I lied to them,
like a poet.) They want
their money back, plus
the vig. We must escape.
Thank you for your business!
Let's meet up later in a bar--

a bar. Now there's a real
business: trading vessels
of distilled and brewed liquids
for cash, listening to failed
entrepreneurs--and poets
of every kind--tell their woebegotten
tales, wiping the gleaming
dark bar clean. "Last call!"

hans ostrom 2022